Local man gets a shot on 'Deal or No Deal'

VICTORVILLE • It'll be "Deal or No Deal" for one local man, when he appears on the hit TV show this afternoon.

Lionel Dew, president of the Victor Valley African-American Chamber of Commerce, will be on the syndicated version of the popular show airing at 3 p.m. today on NBC.

"He won't tell me what he won," his wife, Barbara Dew, said. "But I do know that he had $250,000 in his hand."

Aside from getting into the audience at "The Price is Right," the Dews never tried out for any game shows before, Barbara Dew said.

She had been a longtime fan of the show and her son, who lives in Woodland Hills near where it's produced, got the couple tickets to see a taping for her birthday in February.

So when Lionel Dew heard there was an open casting for the show at the Santa Anita Park race course, they stopped in to audition. Barbara Dew said they stood in line for a little over an hour until they were interviewed together.

Shortly after, representatives from the show called and asked Lionel Dew to officially try out for the show. He did, and was soon asked to be on an upcoming episode.

"It all happened in less than three months," Barbara Dew said. "I was shocked because we talked to someone in line who had been trying to get on for two years."

While she anxiously awaits the show's airing, Barbara Dew said not knowing how much he's won hasn't stopped her from dreaming about how they'll spend it: possibly by taking a trip to the Bahamas.

"If it's way up there, boy oh boy we're really going to have fun," she said. "But if it's not," she joked, "I tell him, 'I'll still love you anyway.'"